2012 Christmas Getaway

New move, new jobs and not enough vacation hours, I could only plan for a short family getaway this year. 

So, to where?  After making my brain works for a while, the answer is there.  It's to Palm springs. 

Shop until drop.... :P

Our first stop on first day of the trip is at Desert Hills/Cabazon Premium Outlets.  It's a shopping paradise for shoppers as most of designer stores which aren't available in other Premium outlets are here: Gucci, Versace, Prada, Tory Burk, Jimmy Choo, UGG, etc.

Desert Hills premium outlets is superb in the sense that it has various top of the line aforementioned designer stores among all the premium outlets which I have come across so far.

Riviera Resort

 After spending hours of shopping, we headed to Riviera Resort and Spa which is our lodging in Palm Springs.  The resort's setting and decorations seem so modern and check-in process was very easy and quick.

However, a big disappointment comes into play after coming a long way to the room from the elevator only to find out that our room card key didn't work.  Exhaust from the whole day shopping and starvation make us a huge disappointment on this. 

As I didn't want to walk all the way back to the front desk, I made a call to their help line to complaint about the issue.  It took a long time to arrange another room which is closer to the elevator for us.  The annoyance of the long wait just made my impatience worse so I hang up the call.  We decided just to head to the front desk to grab a new key.  Just then I got a callback from help desk about the new room saying that they would deliver the new room key to us. It took quite a while to get those keys delivered to us.  It indeed was a bumpy beginning with Riviera. 

Another disappointment comes into play when our room didn't get the maid service on the second day.  I came to realize that we didn't hang the "Maid Service" tag up on our door before we left.  Unless you hang "Do not disturb" tag up on your door, your room will receive the maid service by default per my experience from almost all hotels we had come across so far.  But it apparently worked different here.

But from a positive perspective, we got a complimentary cocktail (but couldn't pick anything from the menu) for each of us for each stay of the night.  And the swimming pool area is so huge and nice.  During summer, floaties could be rented from the resort and it could have been a nice lazy river for girls to play.  I really like those big beds by the pool which are just perfect to kill a nice day by laying oneself down on them, relax, gaze people, enjoy the atmosphere, take a nap or read a book or two, you name it. 

Hiking... Hiking... And Hiking...

For our second day, we spent our day hiking at Indian Canyons. There got total 4 canyons inside the park: Palm Canyon, Andreas Canyon, Murray Canyon and Tahquitz Canyon.  We hiked along Palm Canyon about 1.5 miles out of 15 miles and came back as girls couldn't walk any longer.  We spotted lots of palm trees along the way.  The dessert feel was definitely there as surrounding scenes were brown instead of green.  But there got some natural spring  and flowing water so it was a pleasant hiking.  Rock formations at some places are amazing.

There was a small shop by the parking lot which sells books, postcards, hiking canes, refreshments and some snacks.  Girls got ice cream break there.  The prices were very reasonable.  A lot of such places usually sell refreshments with incredibly high prices but this price just collect the regular price.  We spotted flying cute little humming birds there then.

 

After that, we headed to the short trail which led us to West Fork Falls which was the other end of the parking lot.  Again, we witness amazing rock formations along the way.  At one point, huge rock block the entire trail and it appeared like it was the dead end of the trail.  So we didn't spot any waterfall but girls got a blast hiking on those rocks.

As a last stop, we stopped at Andreas Canyon and hiked a little more than 0.5 mile I think.  As girls couldn't walk any further we headed back.  Girls played at a relatively big stream with lots of palm trees which seemed like a desert oasis to me. 

Downtown Palm Springs

We had to pass through the downtown on the way back to hotel.  As there got a couple of hours before the sun set so we decided to cruise around the downtown.  The plan was to hang out there, find a good restaurant, fill our empty stomach from hiking, go back to the resort we were staying and call it a day.

We stopped at one of remarkable Palm Springs' landmarks which is 26 feet tall "Forever Marilyn Monroe" statue. It's located at the corner of Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way.  There were full of visitors who enjoyed taking pictures under her.  The statue was previously located in Chicago and was relocated to Palm Springs on August, 2012 and it'll be there until June 2013.  I'm glad that I catch her before it will be moved to somewhere else :D

Thai Food for Dinner :)

As for our dinner, we stopped at Thai Time restaurant at downtown for two days in a row.  It's a nice little restaurant and I highly recommend it for its food.  The wait could be nearly 45 minutes to an hour during peak hours.  It was the case for our first day there.  As for the second day, we dined early so we beat the crowd. 

During the first day, we got Satay as appetizer and girls finished them in no time.  May be they were starving due to the wait :P  We got the eggplant with pork and house special fried rice and we both liked them a lot.  The fried rice was really fragrant and tasty except it was a bit greasy.

During second visit, we got various appetizer platter, shrimp tom yum soup, pad thai, and my all time favorite Thai food, Penang chicken curry.  The soup was just so so as it wasn't anywhere close to the authentic tom yum soup we got back in Thailand.  Penang curry was good but it was just okay.

I had much better Penang curry somewhere else.  My favorite place for it was at a Thai restaurant in Fremont.  My rating for Pad Thai was really good though.  The only complaint was that the food we ordered were much more than we could consume so I had to stuff myself up while I didn't want to waste them.  Ahhhh!!!! My guilty pleasures!!! :P

Hiking... And... More Hiking...

 On third day, we went to Joshua National Park.  Finally,huh!!  I've been planning to visit there for quite a while but it didn't happen previously and we were there finally.  It was about an hour drive from Palm Springs.

Make sure to bring or prepare own lunch as there're so meal places in the park.  So I grabbed some sandwiches and drinks from 711 which was right across our resort.

We entered the park via Oasis Visitor Center.  I grabbed some maps during our bio break.  Then we drove along Park Blvd.

My first curiosity was to witness those Joshua tree in person.  Even before entering the park, I started to see them at Twenty Nine Palms which is the city by the park.  It's a well populated city with many lodings, super markets, stores, gas stations.  I didn't know that it will be that populated in that city.

It's very different from other national parks I've been such as Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, etc.  The nearby villages, towns or cities of those national parks are pretty deserted.  And only a few gas stations will be available and the gas prices they got are soaring to the sky.  It's apparently different for Twenty Nine Palms.  If I knew it earlier, I don't think I'll buy sandwiches and drinks from 711 I guess :P

It's a pity that I didn't know the name of our first stop.  Rock formations are amazing and he and girls got a blast hiking there.  My fearless girls just climbed upon those rocks in no time and I was the only one who was busy screaming them to be careful and taking their pictures :D

We stopped at Skull Rock as well.  And I saw Jumbo rocks from the car.  The next destination was to Keys View which is about 20 minutes drive from Park Boulevard down Keys View Road.  There was 0.2 mile loop trail to the crest of the San Bernardino Mountains.  It provides a panoramic views of Santa Rosa Mountain on the right, along with 10,800-foot San Jacinto Peak behind Palm Springs.  The usually snow-covered peak of 11,500-foot San Gorgonio Mountain is on the far right.  And the shiny surface of Salton Sea was visible from there as well. 

One interesting thing was to witness San Andreas Fault which is at the southwest side of the ridge.  It drops nearly a mile in elevation into the Coachella Valley. The infamous San Andreas Fault, stretching 700 miles from the Gulf of California to the Mendocino Coast north of San Francisco, runs through the valley and
can be seen below.

Other notable stops include Arch Rock, Cholla Cactus Garden and Ocotillo Patch.  Cholla Cactus are really cute but my curosity to those cute ones became unpleasant and ended up with screaming while I accidentally stepped on one of its spiky balls (flowers of the cactus????).

Those extremely tiny yet super tough spikes poked my feet through my leather boot and it was hurting.  And they wouldn't come off easily.  While trying
to remove one of them by barely touching it, it transferred right onto my fingers and stuck there.  Those spikes were killing me and it was unbearably painful.  No matter how hard I shook my hand, it wouldn't come off.  I heard a male's screaming from a distance.  I was sure someone else was in a pain who was in the same situation as me. 

Finally, he had to use the small rock to get them off both from my hand and my feet/boot.  My finger got bleeding immediately after it came off.  As soon as it came off, the pain went away.  The weather was pretty chilly on that day so my blood clotted and stopped bleeding shortly.  Thanks God!  Be ware!!  Keep a distance from those cactus if you ever see them. 

Ocotillo trees look weird too.  It has no leaves at all.  I think it was due to the season and it gets leaves perhaps during other seasons?

Any tree, cactus or shrubs which grow in desert got spike one way or another.  Joshua trees got full of spikes too.  Depending on the size of the tree, its spikes could range from thin and tiny to thick, long and tough ones.   

Overall, I think it's worth a trip to Joshua Tree National Park at least once.  I really recommend it.

Resort Comparisons

 We stayed at two different resorts: Riviera and Hyatt Regency Suites.  Overall, we prefer Hyatt.  Of course,it's a suite so it comes with a separate living room and bed rooms.  And with two LCD Tvs.  So, while girls were enjoying their favorite kids'shows on one TV, I could enjoy the quietness under dim light by laying down on the bed without interfering with any noise or light.

However, the swimming pool and around settings in Riviera is much bigger and it is much more like a resort setting.  We didn't get a chance to visit the gym in Hyatt but the gym at Riviera looks pretty nice as well.

We did have a nice Christmas Eve dinner by the fireplace by the pool at Hyatt though.

Snow Time Or White Christmas

It's Christmas Day!  We were bringing girls for their snow play.  Palm Springs's another popular attraction Aerial Tram was our destination. 

Oh, man!  It's incredible to see such a big crowd and a long line to get to the Tram station.  There got shuttle bus running which brings people to the Tram station.  We parked our car and had to wait in line for our turn on the shuttle bus.  The wait was more than an hour.

As soon as we got to Tram station, I rushed to the ticket station after seeing such a crowd.  That day was full of unexpectations.  First of all, who knows there would be such a big crowd, especially when it's Christmas Day!  I thought people will stay home for family time.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!!  I was apparently wrong.

Second of all, I blame myself for not buying ticket online.  Note to self is to buy ticket online whenever it's possible for next time :)

And the third thing is no cell phone reception at all in the building.  It was a bummer.  After getting tickets, I couldn't make a call to him due to no reception.  With that crowd, it took me quite a while and a couple of trips back and forth to spot him and girls.

There got a long line to ticketing counter as well even though the line was moving pretty fast.  But guess what?  I only got the tickets for 2:00pm tram.  That gonna be more than 2 hours wait for us.  The tram runs every ten minutes and it seems it could fit about 80 people in one tram.  So can you imagine the headcount on that day? :D

They have a little cafe and gift shop with outdoor seating area.  The building is two-storey.  The downstairs one got super crowded and couldn't find a seat.  There got a little hiking area for kids to play and a little waterfall too.

We went upstairs and I managed to find seats for us.  During the wait, we was able to observe the tram and realize that it was going pretty high.  This is the fourth unexpectation I would say.  I thought the tram ride is just like most of the gondola ride, going straight which brings us from one place to another.  I was already thrilled by seeing a couple of back and forth trams which were climbing very high.  Thanks God! It carries about 80 people altogether so I wouldn't be alone and my heart wouldn't race that fast :P

Thrills or Excitements???

1:45pm!!! The wait was finally over.  We was called to wait in the waiting area.  Then to the boarding area. And finally onto the tram.  There only got a couple of limited seats in the center of the tram which is next to the tram control panel.  Girls secured the spots by the glass to enjoy the view.  Off we went and up to the San Jacinto mountain at 8500+ ft elevation.

The tram was rotating so everyone in the cabin got a chance to enjoy 360 degree of the surrounding.  It passed total 5 towers.  At each tower, it did swing or switch the gear for a steeper climb.  We all could feel kind of free fall feeling and most of us were screaming with thrills.  The reaches to fourth and fifth towers were much more obvious about the swing.  It was so amazing and thrilling at the same time to look back and see how far and high we've come within a matter of minutes.

At the same time, the tram was rotating so we were able to see how far ahead of us and how steep and high we would be going.  Can you picture yourself hanging in the middle of 5000+ or 6000+ ft in the tram?  All I wanted at that time was to get over with the ride as soon as possible.  :P  A series of pessimistic thoughts kept clicking on my mind such as what if mechancial breakdown of the tram as it was running continuously thought the day with about 10 to 15 minutes interval?  Or what if those steel cables holding the tram got issue?  Or earthquake happened right at the moment?  Oh, NO!!!! 

I know nothing could happen to us. If there got issues with the tram in the past, there could have been big headlines in the newspapers and people might have been hesitate to take it of course.  I know we'll get  there safely but you couldn't just help when you were  in the situation. :D

He was holding my hands really tight as he knew I'm scared.  Well, just like that we safely landed on the top finally!!!  Huh!!  What's a relief!!

And we got our family picture taken before boarding to the tram.  We went there to view our picture.  And there got a group of girls who were next to us in the tram and who kept screaming for every swing at the towel.  They were asking the guy at the photo counter about the return trip to find out whether it would be
scarier one.  The face of one of them looked very pale already from the trip up to the top.  He said, there only got one or two of accidents where tram went off or stuff like that.  He was cracking the jokes up but the girls' faces went paler.  His coworker lady had to intervene and comforted them he was just joking.  Of course, his jokes irritated me as well as who likes to hear such jokes?  He went too much I think.

Anyway, we went out of the mountain top tram station into San Jacinto State park.  They already made well paved stair cases down to the park of the mountain which were all covered with snow.  I think it was about nearly 1 mile trail.  I know the return trip gonna be challenging. 

Snow Time....

Girls got a blast sledding there.  Michelle was overjoyed and giggling all the way.  I even did sledding with Sophie once.  It was super fun. No wonder girls were in love with it.  It wasn't their first time sledding but was my first time as I thought it was a kid thing :P

And Sophie was busy with snow ball fighting and throwing snow to us.  Especially it was her main target since I was standing and watching them and was available all time :P

The return hike back to the tram station was tough though as expected.  Everyone was tired from snow play and was starving as well.  Plus, this is hiking up in contrast to the hiking down to get to the snow play area.  Michelle apparently got no energy and asked Daddy had to hold her.

I was struggling just myself for the hike.  Sophie was leading us and she was doing so great all by herself.  I found a couple of big kids who still asked their parents to hold them.  I found one Dad who was breathing heavily and taking breaks frequently for holding his about 10 years old son.  But his son insisted so he piggyback him all the way back.  I know it wasn't easy for him with Michelle as well.  I myself was struggling and dragging myself so think about them who have to carry another one.  This exactly depicts parents' love.

And we dined at Peaks restaturant.  We got a table by the glass window and the view and outlook was stunning.  The food was just okay but we finished almost all of our food as we all were starving. 

We went to the outside open deck to enjoy the outlook panoramic view down to the valley.  It was almost 5 o' clock so it was getting dark and the weather was also freezing at that elevation.  I didn't have my gloves on and I felt my hands got numbed and freezing.  Regardless, I felt awesome for the view and height we were standing.

There was a long time to board onto the return tram as well.  But the wait was only about 30 minutes and it wasn't as bad as the one coming up here.  We were surprised to learn that there got plenty of people coming up to the top at this hour. 

We were stuck in the middle of the tram this time and wasnt' able to enjoy the view much.  I was still scared with my own irrational thoughts and the jokes from the guy at the photo counter anyway so probably we were better off with middle spots I comforted myself :P  After quite some screamings by all of us in the cabin, the excitement came to an end finally.  Our tram safely landed back to the ground station.

It was a really incredible, thrilling and exciting ride and experience I would say.  I'm not sure I want to take it again but I highly recommend everyone to experience at least once in the life.  It's really worth it :)

We were lucky this time as the shuttle was ready right outside the station to fill up the last couple of available spots.  We hopped in and got to the parking lot where our car was parked shortly. 

Home  Sweet Home

Girls fell into sound sleep not long after sitting in the car.  And we finally got back to home-sweet-home.  We did the family movie together.  And Sophie ended up the night beautifully by playing Christmas carols on her piano. 

Merry Christmas & We got a nice little getaway during Christmas break!

Pictures to come... (I promise :P)

One Fine Spring Weekend Outing

It was a one nice spring weekend last week.  The weather was getting much warmer so I had decided to bring my girls to the Upick strawberry farm last Sunday. 

Then on Thursday of that weekend, Si Si asked me whether we would like to join her to Crocker Art museum located in Sacramento downtown.  It’s the museum which is right next to the freeway where I get onto it on the way back home.  In other words, I see it every time on the way back home and sometimes make me wonder of what will be inside. 

Every Museum’s Day which occurs annually, a free admission is allowed to all museums within Sacramento including this one but we always seem to overlook it as the girls always win by wanting to go the zoo and the fairy tale town.  After playing at those two places, they are usually exhausted and we usually end up going home instead of visiting to other museums around. 

Therefore, I of course replied yes to Si Si and we had joined her to the museum last Saturday.  When we first stepped into it and looked around, nothing appeared to be really special.   I saw a lot of those art works, sculptures and potteries on the first floor which are normally seen in an Art museum. 

I was wondering that it would just be a quick walking tour of the museum.   However, the more we walked in and the deeper we explored, I started to witness a lot of masterpiece art works and paintings.  Some of them are really quite amazing and did really capture our attention.  

For example, there got paintings whereby the fire in them were glowing like real one we would see outside.  And a lot of those masterpieces paintings are in 3D, meaning that I could feel the whole person like in the real world.  In one painting, the artist was so extraordinary that the eyes of the person are so live and it made me feel like I’m seeing the actual person’s eyes in that painting.  There also got a painting of a bird in 3D: it’s just a simple bird but it appears to be like seeing an actual bird which was about to fly when I looked it at from the distance.

We visited to the Asian art corner and saw a lot of arts collection from several different Asian countries including China, Japan, India, Nepal, Thailand, and even from Burma.  As always, I was so excited to see Burmese exhibits in museums here. 

At that time, we had spent nearly two hours in the museum.  As we came straight from Sophie’s ballerina and tap dance class, all of us hadn’t had any lunch, instead of the brunch thing we had at home before her class.  The girls started to get cranky and grumpy since their lunch and nap time has been well pasted. 

We went to cafeteria downstairs but it had almost done for the day and nothing much had left there.  So we decided to head off and had a lunch somewhere in downtown instead.   So, we had to say goodbye to the museum and call it off.  I honestly still wanted to explore a little bit more since there seemed to have a corner which we hadn’t visited.  Oh, well, with my girls what do I expect?  They are our priority as always.  Oh wait!  He’s my priority too.  As usual, when his stomach started to complain him, I could not offend his grumpy face until he got refueled and get away with that grumpy face. :P

By the way, Crockers are so amazing for having such a huge collection of arts.  The amount of effort, time and yes the money they invested for all those collections are just so amazing and impressive.   Just like William Rudolph Hearst at Hearst Castle we saw earlier this year in San Siemeon, they are arts lover and did a vast collection indeed.  Oh and I hadn’t mentioned that Crockers also had the collections of superior Chinaware in top notch porcelain and upscale carving and colorful and some gold lining patterns. 

Anyway, after having a lunch at the nice sandwich shop at the downtown, we headed back home to relax and enjoy the rest of the day at home and in our yard. 

The next day was equally eventful as well.  We brought the girls to U Pick Pacific Star Organic Strawberry farm which was located around Woodland.  

They were so excited once they had got there.  They both picked an empty bucket each and started to pick the fresh organic strawberry from those strawberry trees.   

Sophie has a good eye and she tried to pick the big red well ripen strawberries.  Michelle was so funny in the sense that she would pick any strawberry she saw on her way including those small tiny ones, and even the green ones. 

I followed and guided her what to be picked and what not to be picked.  Still she would pick some green ones sometimes and when I told her those were not good enough then she would throw them away.   Shhhh….  Luckily, there was nobody watching us.  I had to tell her to stop throwing them away and to pick the right ones instead.

They both got even more excited when they continued their DIY pickings at the blackberry farm.  It was my first time seeing the black berry trees as well.  

They both were attracted to the red ones and started to pick the reds instead of the black ones which were ready to be eaten and picked.   It was so much fun and pleased to see them having such a good time there.  

As I forgot to bring the sun screen, we were concerned that they would get sun burn so we decided to leave after a while.  But on the way back to the weight scale station where the fruits were to be weighed and paid, they kept picking strawberries again while we passed through the strawberry farm again.  

Even before weighing and paying, Michelle started to pick a few and started to eat them.   It was so cute of her who couldn’t just wait a little bit longer.  I had to stop her and Daddy went to wash some off so that they could eat them right away.   

Even before getting on the car, they started to eat them and their mouths all turned red from the juices of berries.  They let us try and we ate some as well.  It was so yummy.  They were so fresh, tender and so juicy.

Then it was about the lunch time and we went to Cache Creek since it was not too far away from the farm.  It was a very gorgeous day to drive along the County Road to Cache Creek.  

We all enjoyed the panoramic view alongside of the road.  The girls rolled the windows down, were giggling and had a lot of fun to feel the wind on their faces. 

Finally we had a buffet at Cache Creek.  I particularly loved the BBQ ribs there and so do the girls.  Oh and not to mention about those enticing wide varieties of desserts there.  It was so funny that the lady at the dessert station was asking me of where and how to get Michelle’s haircut.  She was surprised to learn that it was a home cut. 

On the way home, the girls fast fell into asleep as usual.  It was an eventful, yet relaxing and fun spring weekend.  The weather was just perfect, at least for me since they were in 80s.  It might not be true for the girls though since those two little chill lovers started complaining that it was too hot.  I love such family outings where everyone enjoyed and not too busy and tiring as well.   Summer is right around the corner and hopefully we have more fun with such road trips when the summer progresses!

Fun Hiking at Mount Diablo

The long awaited Memorial Day holiday has finally come!  We were debating on a couple of places and finally we made a call for Mount Diablo, one of Northern California's most significant historical, cultural, and geological treasures. 

I've been wanting to go there quite a while but it didn't happen previously.  He had been there for a couple of times during his conference trips to the States before we've settled down here. Yay, we were on our way to there finally!

The weather was beautiful on that day. This spring has been pretty bizzare and I even feel like it's still winter sometimes. It rains very frequently and the temperature deems below normal than the past.  The rain makes it cooler than it seems I guess.  Anyway, I was glad that it was sunny and beautiful on that day though.

After we had admitted through the South Gate entrance, our winding journey had begun. The strictly two lanes road: one lane for going up and the other one for coming down reminded me of the very very curvy Highway1 to Hearst Castle earlier this year.

What was even worsen for Mount Diablo's winding road is that there is no road barrier. At some point, it appeared that our car was so close to the road edge when the road is narrow.  It was my side on my way up there and I could clearly see the steep valley on my right.  The higher, harder and further our RAV4 had climbed, the thriller I felt.

But the girls seemed to be doing really great though. They rolled their windows down and were enjoying the panoramic scenes.  As Sophie was behind me, she could see and feel the same way as I do.  But nothing seemed to bother both of them at all.  Both of us had to tell them to roll the windows down.

Just like that, 1000 feet had been well passed.  I think it might be when we were approaching to 2000 feet, the girls demanded for the snacks and juices in the trunk.  So, we stopped at the Livermore Valley Overlook. While they were enjoying the food, we stepped out for a while to stretch ourselves and enjoyed the view from there.  I was able to capture a couple of snapshots as well of course.

 Then we headed back to the road to resume our journey.  2000 feet and 3000 feet were passed.  And finally we were at the summit whose elevation is at 3849 feet.  We had reached our destination.  Hooray! Well, it wasn't quite hooray since the parking lot at the summit was full.  We had to patiently wait quite a bit to be able to lock in a spot. 

The view was spectacular from there.  We were able to spot the Golden Gate bridge and San Francisco downtown from there.  It wasn't super clear but it luckily wasn't as misty as I would have thought so we were able to see and figure out what was what.  And we saw the I680 from where came from as well.  It is said that people might be able to see the Sierra mountains, even at the Half Dome at the Yosemite if the day happens to be so clear when one is at the summit.  Too bad that we weren't able to see that far as it was a bit hazy.  We didn't bring the binocular anyway.

Then he and the girls had led me to the trail by the summit.  I think it was along the summit trail and part of Mary Bowerman trail.  The trail was rough, uneven and narrow at some points but I was so amazed by their braveness and fearless. 

At one point, there was this cliff where the rock formation was on top. We saw a couple who were having their lunch and enjoying the nature and far-reaching panoramic view on the edge of the cliff.  They even hang their legs against the cliff.  That was so cool, wasn't it!  Well, only when you have the gut and could have forgotten the steep valley below you of course! :P  I don't think I have that gut!  Thanks for trying though, :P

And Sophie was sitting on the aforementioned rock of the cliff.  There was absolutely nothing from stopping you not to fall off if you ever slipped accidentally.  From where she was sitting, it might be about 1 and half feet or 2 feet away from the edge of the cliff. And that fearless girl freaked me out when she started to crawl towards the edge out of her curiousity I guess.  Before I had noticed myself I was yelling her, most likely with my harsh and pitchy voice to stop.  I know he was just next to her and holding her tight but Michelle was in one of his hands so I was so freaked out that he couldn't handle both of them.  Thanks to my gut: I didn't go anywhere close to the edge and enjoyed the view from the distance!  Well, I don't take such risks!  LOL :P

When we were there, we encountered another passer-by family.  The mom was also so freaked out for her son and yelling from the distance when he tried to get a closer look to the edge.  At the same time, she looked at me and explained that she was afraid of height.  Well, you were not alone! :P I didn't say that to her though.  Anyway, I was glad out of that thriller that I was not alone :D

We did quite a bit of walking along the trail and headed back to the original route. I think we could enjoy the scene more if we had done a bit further.  But we couldn't put up hope too much with two little toddlers tough.

We stopped by at the summit museum. As always, nothing else could convince our Sophie better than reading books.  Both of them read and flipped almost all books at the book corner of the museum. 

After that we looked around inside. I was so amazed to learn that some of the ocean stuff such as sea shells, etc could be found from the earth of Mount Diablo.  It was showing a projected and narrated picture of those super amazing geological transformation that how the floor of the ocean was pushed up through six or eigh miles of overlaying rock and soil, tilting and distorting the rock layers and in some places turning them completely upside down during millions of year ago.  No wonder how the ocean stuff were found and embedded in Mount Diablo?  Nature is just so amazing, isn't it?

I would love to finish watching the film but our stomach started to signal us so we'd better off from there. We drove down to find a picnic area.  

We stopped by at a picnic table under the huge shady trees.  It would be a perfect during the warm summer days with those cool shades.  But with that elevation and being a bit windy on that day, it was a bit chilly for me.  Thanks myself for making and packing some sandwiches for us.  There was no restaurants or whatsoever to get the food from.  As usual, we brought more than enough for snacks and drinks for girls.  That means we got more than enough food for four of us.  Both of girls were so excited for the picnic.  Sophie said that she wanted to do it again since she enjoyed the picnic so much.  Definitely, dear!  Mommy will let you enjoy another picnic next time I promised!

The fun didn't end there.  More fun was awaiting ahead of us since he brought us to Rock City and Wind Caves later.

We also drove through the campground area on the way and saw a lot of overnight campers.  It looked so fun and it did convince me and we were talking about camping in the future.  Well, a couple of more years later when the girls grow up bigger, perhaps we could do it by then.

My two incredible fearless girls had a lot of fun hiking there.  They were such a pro!  In fact, they did really freak me out mostly. As soon as we got to Rock City Sophie started climbing on the huge rock.  Michelle was always a copycat of her big sister and she did keep up with her big sister.  When the daddy stepped out for a while for the restroom, they gave me headaches by running up and down on that relatively steep and high rock.  I was just so worried that they fell off and got injuried.  Perhaps I was too cautious.  They both did pretty good job.

What had thrilled me most was that when Sophie took another much bigger challenge by climbing onto the steep and really high rock hill.  That fearless little girl was climbing so fast ahead of him and just freaked me out more when I learnt from him that there was an open steep cliff at the peak.  What freaked me out much more was that Michelle was trying to catch her sister and following and climbing on the slope.  I was trying to hold her tight not to let her go but she cried and pushed against me so that she could keep climbing.

When I released her, she started to take her shoes and socks off, just like her big sister did so that she could have more grip on the trail for climbing. When I stopped her and told her to stop climbing she seemed so mad and yelled at me that her daddy would let her do it and I was just so speechless. 

By knowning that I would not be able to get to the peak, he came down again to hold Michelle and went back to the top.  I was holding my breath until he got the top.  Because the trail was just wide enough to step a foot at a time and there didn't have enough stepping point to grip the foot properly on those rocks.  Plus, Sophie was sitting on the top by herself and waiting for Daddy and her little sister.  Even though Daddy had asked her not to move and I kept telling from where I was not to move, I was still so worried that she might have moved and so concerned that she might fall off. Thanks God, I felt relieved after they came down safe.  I didn't have any picture for the record keeping.  I wish that I could take the pictures of those adventurous moments but I could barely breath by then so what do you expect?  There were a couple of adults sitting at the bottom of the rock hill and they seemed so amazed to see my girls climbing all the way up.  What's a hiker!!


After getting off from it, they both seemed more confident and started to hike on the adjacent rock hills along the trail.  He told me that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them a couple of years.  Well, he might be right.  I realize that I'd rather keep myself fit so that I wouldn't be left out :)

And our last stop was at the wind caves.  It's so amazing that how the wind had hallowed those sandstones over the time.  When we got there both of them were so tired as they had climbed quite a couple of big and tall rocks on the way here.  He wanted to climb through those hollows and see inside but Sophie wanted to follow with him even though she seemed so exhuasted at that point.  It would be difficult for her age to hike up there.  He had pretty tired at that point after following, guiding and carefully holding both of them not fall off from their hikings along the way. The stubborn girl insisted that she wanted to hike up there as long as Daddy would do hiking even though we both tried to comfort her to stay with me at the bottom and let Daddy take the adventure alone.  Michelle had also given up as she was exhausted already so she had no problem waiting and sitting with me at the bottom.  Finally he gave up his desire of wanting to hike up there since he knew that she was so exhausted already and it would be too much for her with another adventure. 

 

When we all got back to the car, they both were starving from the exhausting their energies for hiking. After refueling their engeries, they fast fell into asleep on the way back.  When she woke up, Sophie requested to bring her for more hikings next time.  She also said that she wanted to do the camping. 

It was such a fun and adventerous day at Mount Diablo.  The girls had a blast there.  We all had fun and relaxing Memorial day weekend there.  Apart from those of my thrilling episodes of course!  More hiking will be coming up so stay tuned, girls!